Apple is once again cracking down on applications that offer rewards to people for social sharing or video viewing. TechCrunch reports that some app developers are receiving rejection notices from Apple’s review team specifically noting their apps are encouraging users to share to Facebook excessively to receive hints or incentives like free game lives. It’s a practice that has been used for years, and even top games like Candy Crush encourage players to connect to Facebook to gain in-game rewards.

Alongside the social sharing aspects, Apple is also rejecting applications that promote other apps. One particular developer only updated the user interface of his application, but Apple rejected the app because it promotes other apps with ads and offers free in-game credits for watching video ads of apps. Like many App Store rejections, it’s a bit of a lottery for developers whether they will pass the guidelines or not. TechCrunch suggests Apple may be looking to enforce some of its guidelines retroactively to apps that aren’t compliant. In an email to an anonymous developer, Apple states "We work hard to ensure that the apps on the App Store are in compliance and we try to identify any apps currently on the App Store that may not be.

I'm all for this. Pushing free apps with the aim of making money through free advertising is basically astroturfing, and all it ever seems to do is annoy people. Plenty of apps do this on Android too, and it annoys me greatly.